"Beneath the sheen of do-gooder ideology, FairSearch can be most charitably described as a Google watchdog. It seeks to fan the flames of disapproval where they've started organically, originate them where they haven't, and generally disseminate negativity toward the Google brand. Think of it as a PR firm working to destroy rather than create goodwill." To make matters worse, FairSearch' work isn't even very good.

On one hand, Google is getting way too big. They practically own the web already, have a sizable chunk of the smartphone market, and are now laying down fiber to become their own ISP. So I think people have a good reason to be weary. I know a lot of people look at Google as 'the good guys', but I think that's extremely short-sighted. They are a publicly traded corporation, which means they're going to screw you over as soon as it serves their bottom line.

On the other hand, it gives me great joy to see MS crying foul. MS have been such dicks for so long, the company deserves every bit of bad karma that it gets. And I think the Fairsearch group would be better off without them, because MS being a part of this group only serves as a distraction. It's kind of like having a pedophile as part of a coalition to fight child sex abuse.

I am going to disagree with everything you said about Google. Yes they are big. But success shouldn't be punished. Their grasp on the smartphone market is tenuous at best. They author a free phone OS. However, Samsung is making anew one. So the fight over that market certainly isn't over. As for being an ISP, they as a company have not been given any of the subsidies that the telecoms have, and are still doing a better job. They even provide free service to low income households. On top of all that they spend millions of dollars funding open source projects. Yes they are publicly traded. Yes they have made some mistakes. But they have done a thousand times better than anything Microsoft has done. They do not actively target their competition, opting to innovate in order to stay competitive. They are doing most things "right".

Fairsearch on the other hand exists solely to harass Google. The companies that make up Fairsearch are companies that can't compete or that Google won't let manipulate Google search to make a profit. If they had a legitimate grievance, the FTC would have done something about it during the investigation. Its guerrilla business tactics, thats all.